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Actually, Torre was secretly planning to bring in Igawa in the first regardless. The injury was just a bonus excuse. He knew that the Sox suck against mediocre lefties they've never seen before (and even a few they have seen), and guessed that the unknown bad lefty mojo would be that much stronger if Boston didn't even have time to study video of the guy.

Phil,
Can you explain the ending? I have a little bit of knowledge of how cricket is played and this situation boggles my mind. I thought international cricket matches were untimed and played for a certain amount of overs. Matches would be played over a couple of days if needed. Why was this match shortened because of the weather and time of day? And what was the confusion about the last three overs?

big win today. i mentally write off any tavarez start as a loss unless its like a home game vs seattle or something. stealing this win is sweet. god do we need clemens.

okajima now has a 17/3 K/BB ratio. i have no idea what to think of him. his track record is not very good but he's been sick this year. i'm pretty sure PECOTA had his ERA north of five, can anyone confirm? the sox are way overdue to randomly get a great relief season out of nowhere.

Joe Torre is a damn good manager. You NEVER hear a player having a problem with him. The players with clean images seem to love him, and the asshats that end up on Torre's teams never seem to hav e any problems either.

And I think he's Ok tactically as well. I rarely hav ea problem with a Torre move, while everytime Francona picks up a phone I start to worry.

Torre was a brilliant manager when his pitching staff had rotations including Cone, Wells and Pettitte, or Cone, Pettitte and Clemens in the rotation and Nelson, Stanton and Mendoza setting up Rivera or all 4 of them setting up Wetteland. Man, he was smart then!

Strangely, he doesn't seem as brilliant now, nor did he when he was managing the Cardinals.

Torre's reputation as a good tactician is mainly derived from handing the ball off to a closer who was nearly perfect for many years.

No argument there, but I think judging real-world managers on in-game tactics is something of a lost cause, if only because so very few seem to be really good at it. Given equal rosters, are there more than four or five real-life field bosses who would win a good Strat league? Torre does do a good job of staying out of the way, keeping Steinbrenner out of the way, and for ten years has shown a better-than-most understanding of the urgency of postseason baseball.

There are 30 men managing major-league teams today. I'd rather have Torre than at least two thirds of them, and that includes His Tonyness in St. Louis.

I always thought the "providing a good atmosphere" bit was overdone, but I have to admit that it's probably attributable to Torre that the Yankees keep getting good players to sign on the cheap. They seem to really like playing for him.

Can you explain the ending? I have a little bit of knowledge of how cricket is played and this situation boggles my mind. I thought international cricket matches were untimed and played for a certain amount of overs. Matches would be played over a couple of days if needed. Why was this match shortened because of the weather and time of day? And what was the confusion about the last three overs?

Fiasco is a mild word to describe it.

One day cricket is only 50 overs per side, but the game was shortened to about 38 because of a 3 hour rain delay.

With three overs to remain, Australia had the game in the bag as Sri Lanka needed about 70 runs to win. When they went off the field the game in effect was over because any recalculation would make Australia the winner. The confusion set in because the world cup has a reserve day not like other one day games.

I'll quickly check an aussie newspaper and get a better explanation, as I am rushing this post...

Congrats, Phil. Your boys were unstoppable.

Thanks. To think in Friday's chatter that I was calling Gilly and automatic out!!!

An idle thought: looking over the early schedule, and noting the health of the team going into the season, it was clear that the Sox needed to take advantage of April. Well, mission accomplished. But it seems worth reminding oneself as a Sox fan that this looked like a month in which it was practically required and to some extent expected that the Sox have a good record. Hopefully the lead that they have built sustains them for the more difficult stretches-- in terms of both schedule and health-- that are certainly imminent.

Hmmm. . . This month they played the Yankees 6 times and the Blue Jays 5 times. They also had 3 in Texas and 2 against the Angels (3 scheduled). Next month looks a bit harder, but April wasn't exactly easy. Surely there are stretches coming where they play mostly the Orioles, Devil Rays, Tigers, Mariners, and those sorts of teams.